Schrödinger's cat in popular culture
Schrödinger's cat is a seemingly paradoxical thought experiment devised by Erwin Schrödinger that attempts to illustrate the incompleteness of the theory of quantum mechanics when going from subatomic to macroscopic systems. In 1935, Schrödinger published an essay describing the conceptual problems in quantum mechanics. A brief paragraph in this essay described the cat paradox: :One can even set up quite ridiculous cases. A cat is penned up in a steel chamber, along with the following diabolical device (which must be secured against direct interference by the cat): in a Geiger counter there is a tiny bit of radioactive substance, so small that perhaps in the course of one hour one of the atoms decays, but also, with equal probability, perhaps none; if it happens, the counter tube discharges and through a relay releases a hammer which shatters a small flask of hydrocyanic acid. If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The first atomic decay would have poisoned it. The Psi function for the entire system would express this by having in it the living and the dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts. Introduction It was not long before science-fiction writers picked up this evocative concept, often using it in a humorous vein. Several have taken the thought experiment a step further, pointing out or extra complications which might arise should the experiment actually be performed. For example, in his novel American Gods, Neil Gaiman has a character observe, "if they don't ever open the box to feed it it'll eventually just be two different kinds of dead." Likewise, Terry Pratchett's Lords and Ladies adds the issue of a third possible state, in the case of Greebo, "Bloody Furious". Douglas Adams describes an attempt to enact the experiment in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. By using clairvoyance to see inside the box, it was found that the cat was neither alive nor dead, but missing, and Dirk's services were employed in order to recover it. On a somewhat more serious level, Ian Stewart's novel Flatterland (a sequel to Flatland) attempts to explain many concepts in modern mathematics and physics through the device of having a young female Flatlander explore other parts of the "Mathiverse". Schrödinger's Cat is just one of the many strange Mathiverse denizens she and her guide meet; the cat is still uncertain whether it is alive or dead, long after it left the box. Her guide, the Space Hopper, reassures the Cat with a modern view of quantum decoherence. Ursula K. Le Guin wrote a story entitled "Schrödinger's Cat" in 1974 (reprinted in The Compass Rose, published in 1982), which also deals with decoherence. Greg Egan's novel Quarantine, billed as "a story of quantum catastrophe", features an alternative solution to the paradox: in Egan's version of quantum mechanics, the wave function does not collapse naturally. Only certain living things — human beings among them — collapse the wave function of things they observe. Humans are therefore highly dangerous to other lifeforms which require the full diversity of uncollapsed wavefunctions in order to survive. As Egan notes, Schrödinger's hypothetical cat is one of the most familiar illustrations of quantum-mechanical oddities. In Quarantine, a physicist asks the narrator, an ex-cop and private investigator, if he has ever heard of "the quantum measurement problem". The narrator is naturally confused, but when asked if he's heard of Schrödinger's Cat, he replies, "Of course." Fiction writers have confined other animals besides cats in such contraptions. Dan Simmons' novel Endymion begins with hero Raul Endymion sentenced to death by imprisonment in a Schrödinger box. In the fortieth-anniversary Doctor Who audio drama "Zagreus" (2003), the Doctor is locked in a lead-lined box also containing cyanide in an effort to explain his situation of being neither dead nor alive. Afterwards, the Doctor does mention that he had met Schrödinger's Cat. In addition, the name "Schrödinger" has itself become an inside joke, often employed to elicit a chuckle from those familiar with physics. In an episode of the 1940s radio drama "Maddox's Bedtime Stories for Kid Geniuses" entitled "Little Eve and Gogo", the main character is a teenage female scientist named Kat Schrödinger. Cats named Schrödinger appear in the television series Sliders and Stargate SG-1, for example, as well as in Carol Hill's feminist science fiction novel The Eleven Million Mile High Dancer. The animated series Futurama, several of whose production team had advanced degrees in science and math, includes many jokes of this sort; in the episode "A Clone of My Own", a brief shot reveals a nightclub called "Schrödinger's Kit-Kat Club" (also an allusion to Cabaret). Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Cat Who Walks Through Walls features a cat named Pixel, affectionately termed "Schrödinger's Cat" due to his ability to be wherever his favorite person is. Pixel's ability to walk through walls is due to the fact that he does not know that it is impossible. Other assorted examples Books and stories *John Gribbin's 1984 bestseller, In Search of Schrödinger's Cat is a layman's guide to Quantum Physics, it includes a brief history and discussion of the philosophical implications. * The Schrödinger's Cat trilogy is the name commonly given to a trilogy of science fiction/conspiracy theory novels written by Robert Anton Wilson. It consists of The Universe Next Door, The Trick Top Hat and The Homing Pigeons. * In The Coming of the Quantum Cats, by Frederik Pohl, a man meets his many corresponding selves as he travels into the multiverse. * Steve Martin's 1998 book Pure Drivel includes a piece entitled "Schrödinger's Cat", which presents a summary of the theory, followed by several fictitious, nonsensical theories, including "Wittgenstein's Banana", "Apollo's Non-Apple Non-Strudel", and "Chef Boyardee's Bungee Cord" (which begins, "A bungee cord is hooked at one end to a neutrino, while the other end is hooked to a vibraphone...") * A two-headed cat, one head being conscious the other sleeping or presumably dead, appears in one of Christopher Stasheff's series of "Her Majesties Wizard" novels, along with other thought experiment beings, the most notable being Maxwell's Demon. * George Alec Effinger's novelette, "Schrödinger's Kitten" (1988), received both the Hugo and the Nebula Award. Schrödinger's Kitten was published in book form in 1992. * Greg Bear's short Story Schrödinger's Plague (appearing in the collection Tangents) deals with a group of scientists who are unwittingly subjected to a similar experiment in which they both are and are not infected with a disease that will wipe out humanity: In this case "opening the chamber" (discovering for certain that they are infected or even simply believing they are infected) may mean dooming humanity. * The manga Ah! My Goddess features a "Schrödinger's Whale". *In the Manga HAL(Hyper Academic Laborotory), a Schrödinger's cat appeared as a cat inside the box where every time you open it, it is shifted from dead to alive or vice versa depending on the life or death last time the box was opened. The characters happen to have forgotten to close the box after opening the box when it is dead and it became rotten. The box is then closed and sealed forever. * Adam Felber's novel Schodinger's Ball is a comic exploration of the theory. * Ursula K. Le Guin 's sci-fi short story "Schrödinger's Cat" from The Compass Rose (1982) imagines the third option where the cat simply isn't there when the box is opened * Mark Fabi's novel Wyrm features a Schrödinger's cat whose tomb has not yet been opened and who therefore lives in an indeterminate/ethereal state appearing as a disembodied Cheshire Cat with an almost omniscient knowledge of the immediate environment. * Robina Williams's two novels Jerome and the Seraph and Angelos features Schrödinger's cat as the main character. * In Dan Simmons's Hyperion Cantos, the character of Raul Endymion in the second section is trapped in a Schrödinger prison, in which at any moment a poison gas will be released due to an isotope's decay. Audio/Visual media * In the episode of NUMB3RS entitled "Identity Crisis", Charlie re-phrases Schrödinger's Cat to illustrate the point that the tests used to disprove/prove a murder suspect's identity are built on a false premise. * In the anime Master of Mosquiton, there is a discussion between Schrödinger and the vampire Saint-Germain, wherein Germain claims he can control fate. To prove this, Germain predicts the cast of a die. Just as the die is about to land as predicted, Schrödinger's pet cat bats the die so that it lands on a different number. * Schrödinger's cat is referenced in the movie John Carpenter's Prince Of Darkness. * The anime Noein thrives heavily on several theories of quantum physics. Most particularly, it uses the concept of the Many-Worlds Interpretation alongside the theory of the Copenhagen Interpretation. Schrödinger's cat is mentioned a number of times throughout the series. * A Dutch short movie from 1990 is called Schrödingers kat. A teacher explains the theory to his class. At the same time a man called Schrödinger (played by Bruno Ganz) dies of a heart attack in his apartment, while neighbours assume he is still alive and send him Christmas cards. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210966/ * A track on the Tears for Fears album Saturnine Martial & Lunatic (1996) is called "Schrödinger's Cat". * Schrödingers katt is a Norwegian weekly science television program on NRK. * Schrödinger's Cat is the title of the b-side track to Vega 4's single Traffic Jam. * "Schrödinger's cat" is the title of songs by Jimmy Buffett and Tears For Fears. * In an episode of Stargate SG1, Samantha Carter has a cat called Schrödi, named after Schrödingers cat. * In Higurashi no naku koro ni, Schrödinger's cat is mentioned in a poem by an enigmatic figure named Frederika Berncastle: Please tell me what happened in this night. It's like the cat inside the box. Please tell me what happened in this night. You don't know if the cat in the box is dead or alive. Please tell me what happened in this night. The cat in the box was dead. * In the seventh season of The West Wing the band that played at the white house wedding was called Schrödinger's cat. * Schrödinger was the name of Samantha Carter's cat on Stargate SG-1. Schrödinger was first introduced in the first season episode "Enigma." In that episode, Carter gave Schrödinger to a Tollan named Narim. In "Pretense," Schrödinger made a second appearance. Narim sent the cat through the Stargate in advance of a Tollan envoy, knowing Carter would recognize him and know who was coming. *In episode 21 of the anime Kanon, the teacher is teaching Schrödinger's cat paradox. *The Peter Hammill album "Singularity" (2006) opens with a track called "Our Eyes Give It Shape" which refers metaphorically to Schrödinger's cat and the observer effect: there can be no false or true, I want to have it all, I want to see the whole thing through... It's a fifty-fifty call: maybe Schrödinger's cat could be the Cheshire one too? *In the television program, Sliders, the main character Quinn's cat is named Schrödinger. Games * In the computer game NetHack, monsters known as quantum mechanics may carry a chest containing Schrödinger's Cat. When opened, there is a 50% chance of finding it dead and a 50% chance of it jumping out alive. * In both Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga games, Schrödinger is the name of a cat that always seems to be at the right place at the right time. * In the roleplaying game supplement GURPS Infinite Worlds, Schrödinger's Cat is used to illustrate the Many-worlds interpretation. * In the Japanese visual novel game Memories Off~Sorekara~, the theory of "Schrödinger's Cat" is an indirect analogy to the character Non-chan, a girl who lost her father in her early childhood. Unwilling to accept the truth for years, Non-chan always believed that if she hadn't seen her father's death personally (without observation), then the "state" of him would have remained unknown. *In the Playstation game "Silent Hill," the school area features a locker with a rustling door. In the regular universe, a cat jumps out of the locker, but in the "dark" universe, there is only blood in the locker. *In the videogame "Lunar Knights", a Mobile Fighter called Schrodinger is piloted by the cat-like terrenial, Perrault. *In the Playstation 2 game ".hack//G.U.," there is a character named "Schrödinger," a female beast-type character who, when talked to, begins to educate you about the meaning and uses of the term. Webcomics * A cat named Schrödinger appears as a semi-recurring character in Checkerboard Nightmare, a webcomic by Kristofer Straub. * The webcomic Two Lumps has an episode about Schrödinger's cat. "They're talking about schreddin' cats and puttin' 'em in a box!!!" (view) * Stephen Notley's Bob the Angry Flower cartoon strip "Schrödinger's Fridge" stated that it could not be determined if beer was in the fridge or not. * A "Schrödinger Box" (which no one is allowed to open) is used in Agnostica celebrations in the comic strip Nukees. * A twisted version of Schrödinger's Cat and "Quantum Fetish Mechanics" appears in the webcomic Questionable Content. (view) * An Egyptian deity discusses the implications of the paradox on the divinity of cats in a strip from Dresden Codak. (view) * Xkcd has a satirical take on the thought experiment, with a humorous twist. * The same principle is used on a Toothpaste for Dinner strip, this time regarding the nature of the coffee in a decanter. * On the strip "Pet Paradox", from the Mad Partay webcomic, a short poem is featured: Pet paradox An ambiguous state Living dead in a box Both crib and grave Appearance in other media * Term "Schrödinger's Terrorist" has been used a semi-humorous way to refer to terrorists whose vital status and/or health is unknown and/or subject to contradictory rumors. Examples of this include the status of Yasser Arafat during last days of his life and Osama bin Laden, of whom Donald Rumsfeld quipped that "He's either alive, or he's alive and injured badly, or he's dead." * In 1982 Cecil Adams, in his column The Straight Dope, wrote a concise and humorous description of the thought experiment, and Einstein's refutation of same, in the form of an epic poem. "The story of Schroedinger's cat (an epic poem)" http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_122.html * The online retailer ThinkGeek sells a t-shirt that has the words "Schrödinger's cat is dead" on the front and "Schrödinger's Cat is not dead" on the back * The (primarly) online retailer Unemployed Philosopher's Guild sells a magnetic finger puppet Schrödinger's Cat (view). * The computer backup software/service Mozy Online Backup, announces it is "Feeding Schrödinger's cat" for several moments while it backs up files. Reference * E. Schrödinger, Die gegenwartige Situation in der Quantenmechanik, Naturwissenschaftern. 23: pp. 807-812; 823-823, 844-849. (1935). English translation: John D. Trimmer, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 124, pp. 323-38 (1980), reprinted in Quantum Theory and Measurement, p. 152 (1983). * * * External links * Poem by Cecil Adams Category:Science in fiction Category:Physical paradoxes Category:Physics in fiction Category:Science fiction themes Category:Thought experiments Category:Fictional cats